


Ends and Frenemies

by Katzedecimal



Series: Frenemy Mine [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: American Sign Language, Deaf Character, Developing Friendships, Gen, Season 2, Sign Language, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 21:24:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5221316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katzedecimal/pseuds/Katzedecimal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoom wants the Flash dead and the Flash has no way to stop him -- but he knows someone who might.  But can he be trusted?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ends and Frenemies

It was a dark and stormy night and Barry Allen was late -- again. This time it was because there was a game on and the pizza places were running further behind than usual, so he had gone for Chinese take-out instead. He checked to make sure he was unobserved then snuck into the abandoned building that served as the Pied Piper's safehouse. 

Although they had initially met as antagonists, his relationship with Hartley Rathaway had settled into something more friendly. "Honey, I'm home!" he called, grinning. There was no answer, though Hartley was bent over his worktop. Barry came closer and noticed the coils of wire sitting in a cup of santising solution on the worktop. He nodded to himself and flicked the light a few times to get Hartley's attention. 

Hartley looked up. "Oh hi," he smiled and reached for the coils of wire in their cup. 

'It's-fine,' Barry signed, touching the thumb of his spread hand to his chest, 'Good practice. How-are you?'

Hartley touched his closed fingers to his chin, then to the fingers of his other hand, 'Good,' he smiled, 'That Chinese food?' 

'Yes,' Barry nodded, 'Okay?' 

'Fine.' 

Barry smiled and unpacked the food. Hartley Rathaway was a polyglot in the truest sense but the one language he'd never pursued was the language he needed the most. Like many people, he'd learned the manual alphabet and a few phrases then dropped it as other interests took over his attention. Now Barry joined him regularly to work through an online course in American Sign Language and had become rather fond of the man. 

'You appear serious, what's-up?' Hartley signed. 

Barry hesitated. He didn't want to make Hartley put his implants back in but he didn't have enough vocabulary to communicate what was bothering him. Saddened, he watched as Hartley extracted a wire from the solution cup and inserted it into his ear, gasping. The implants muted Hartley's extreme tinnitus for the price of pain. With them, he could hear again, sometimes too much, and suffered headaches. Without them, he heard only the ringing that drowned out the world and kept him from sleep. Removing the implants and putting them back in was excrutiating. The particle accelerator had left Hartley with constant suffering. 'I'm sorry,' Barry signed, then had to switch back to English, "I just don't have the vocabulary yet."

"I know. What's going on? Does it have something to do with the new guy and all those new metas showing up?"

Barry nodded, "Yeah. The black hole opened something like wormholes to parallel universes. That's who the new guy is, he's the Flash from another Earth. Same with those new metas - they're being sent here and told they have to kill their counterparts here in order to go home." He looked seriously at Hartley, "So if you see someone who looks just like you, you're not imagining things and he'll probably try to kill you."

"I can think of other things I'd rather do than kill myself," Hartley snickered, then rolled his eyes as Barry failed to get it. "You said they're being sent? By whom?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. The guy sending them is called Zoom. He's from the other world and he's got speed. Jay - that's the new guy - says that Zoom wants to be the ultimate speedster and he's out to destroy everyone else who's got speed."

"Ohhh that's not worrying at all," Hartley nodded. 

"Yeah. He's been sending people to kill me and sooner or later he's bound to come after me himself," Barry sighed, "You were able to take me out pretty quickly and you said you were pretty much practicing on me in order to go after Doctor Wells." 

"Right. So you want to know if I can take out this Zoom?" Barry nodded and Hartley scratched his chin, "Hmm. I've been working on a few things... What data do you have on him? Do you know his top speed?"

"No, but Jay figures he's faster than me."

"Interesting," Hartley said, eyeing the project on the workbench, "Could be a challenge."

"Could... Will you help?"

Hartley eyed Barry. He'd initially targeted the Flash as Dr. Wells' protege but now Flash was learning ASL with him and hadn't taken him into custody. "I'd still have to practice on you. I have no other way to test my theories," he pointed out. 

"STAR Labs..."

"Absolutely not," Hartley grated. 

Barry nodded, disappointed but understanding. They loaded the ASL lessons site and tucked into supper in earnest. Halfway through the lesson, Barry suddenly blurted out, "We could keep fighting!"

Hartley side-eyed him, "What?"

"We keep fighting! Like before! And I let you get away, every time."

"You **want** me to hurt you?" Hartley lifted a sceptical eyebrow. 

"Not too badly, I hope. Not permanent?"

Hartley stared at Barry's earnest face and burst into laughter. "This is going to be the weirdest case of frenemies ever. I'm in!"

**Author's Note:**

> I am a hearing learner of ASL and am nowhere near fluent. The signing described in my fic reflects the understanding of hearing (and formerly hearing) learners and are not accurate to fluent native American Sign Language. I have chosen not to use proper ASL Gloss to describe the signs, but rather to use an English interpretation, with some hyphenation to indicate where concepts that take multiple words in English are expressed by one sign in ASL, to make it easier for English speakers to read the fic fluidly. 
> 
> If you are Deaf, CODA, or other native user of ASL, welcome! I hope you enjoy my fic. I use the Canadian Prairies dialect of ASL and am happy to receive corrections regarding any Kansas regional variations in signs, since _The Flash_ is set in Central City, Kansas. As noted in the comments of another fic, my spouse has tinnitus that is drowning out all other sound. We are learning ASL in order to turn hearing loss into deaf gain. Our local Deaf community have been supportive and have helped him feel less broken, less hearing impaired, and more pride in his identity as Hard of Hearing. If the muse gives me more of these stories, our experience with our local Deaf community will likely influence Hartley as he comes to terms with being late-deafened.


End file.
